Angelique Kerber vs Daria Kasatkina Indian Wells 2018 QF Preview

Daria Kasatkina looks to defeat a third grand slam champion in a row on Thursday morning at Indian Wells. She plays Angelique Kerber for a spot in the semi finals. The Russian is in fine form this tournament and will be at a career high ranking come Monday.

Kasatkina backed up her win over Sloane Stephens with a more impressive win over Caroline Wozniacki on Tuesday, defeating the World No.2 6-4 7-5. She came from a break down in both sets to beat the Dane for the second time in two months, having already done so in St Petersburg last month. “I’m just going on court and actually now enjoying every minute during I’m playing,” Kasatkina said during her post-match press conference. “I’m playing best matches against the best players. But as I say, if you want to be on the top, you have to beat the top players. So, quite simple rule.”

Kerber crushed Caroline Garcia to book her place in the finals, defeating the Frenchwoman 6-1 6-1 as she continues to gain momentum throughout the tournament. “I’m still trying to improve my tennis,” said the former No.1. “I’m trying to be aggressive and trying to change a few things in my game, and also having the mentality again, like fighting for every ball and trying to stay motivated. Just focusing on every single match that I can play.”

“In the beginning it was really tough, because I was really nervous going on the big stages, on the big courts against big players,” said Kasatkina on dealing with playing the top players. “But now, with experience, with the time, I’m getting into it and I would say I’m getting pretty confident in this level already.”

The career head to head stands at 2-2 with all four meetings coming on hard courts. Kerber’s return to form has only seen her lose to top seeds at tournaments this year but she will need to be wary of the threat of Kasatkina, who is very much starting to looking like a top player now.

Prediction – Daria Kasatkina in three sets

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